Her brother Max, a seventh-grader at Redwood Middle School, said that he had been snorkeling and eating pizza over the summer. "I'm not really preparing in any special way to go back to school," he said. Max spent some time at a marine biology camp on Catalina Island.

Patti Workman, their mother, said that this was a very exciting time of the year for the family.

"We've been really enjoying the summer. But it's a new school year," she said. "I'm looking forward to meeting with other parents. I'm also curious about the teachers that my children are going to get."

As the first day of school nears, families in the area are readying themselves for the year ahead. So are the educators.

Karen Hyde, assistant principal at Saratoga High, said she can never sleep on the night before the first day of school. "It has always been like this, ever since I was in kindergarten," she said.

Hyde likened the arrival of new students to the arrival of a cruise ship. "You know what's going to arrive but you don't know who exactly," she said.

The assistant principal said students at Saratoga High will have a lot to look forward to in the new school year. "The PAL center will open in the fall. We're offering some exciting new classes like digital photography," she said. The school will also offer extended 90-minute classes on some days of the week, Hyde said.

"The students are very guarded on the first few days of school. I guess they are afraid of embarrassing themselves," Hyde said. "But after a week, they are not new anymore. You begin to see their true colors."

Hyde said that being a student in high school is perhaps the most important time in a person's life. "They come as children and leave as adults," she said.